


Right Beside You

by maplestreet83



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, Shirbert, and i'm so ready to see this scene, i just love these two oblivious idiots, it's also my first non-ST fic, me actually writing someone new?, so this is slightly intimidating but fun, who would've thought
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-23 02:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21312844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maplestreet83/pseuds/maplestreet83
Summary: The Queen's study group gathers at Ms. Stacey's house for a mock exam. (based on the Shirbert behind the scenes pictures from the Maritime Edit)
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 8
Kudos: 311





	Right Beside You

"Time's up, everyone! Now switch your papers with a neighbour," Ms. Stacey instructed and Anne snapped her eyes up from the sheet of paper she had been working over for the last hour. Taking a breath and dropping her pen, she looked around at Ms. Stacey's parlor where the whole Queen's study group was gathered for a mock exam before the real ones just a week away. They were all in a circle, sat on sofas and on the floor, all looking more or less exhausted by the feat they’ve just been through. 

“I’m sorry in advance,” Moody said with a cringe on his face as he exchanged his test paper with Charlie and Tillie didn’t look any surer as she handed hers to Josie. 

“Here. Don’t be too hard on me,” Gilbert said, and Anne turned to look at him where he was sat on the bench next to her. The light filtering through the curtains of the window behind them illuminated the playful smirk on his face as he held out his test sheet for her to take. 

“I won’t. But I also won’t sugar coat it,” Anne replied, taking the paper from him and then handing hers toward him.

“I was counting on it,” he replied, the smirk still on his face as he took the sheet from her, his eyes flicking up to meet hers as he did. But Anne didn’t notice, preoccupied with how the tips of his fingers brushed against hers ever so slightly as the paper changed hands. She couldn’t help but note how soft his hand felt for a farmer’s son.

“Besides,” he added, opening up the textbook he had used to write his test on:

“I need to know where I stand now so I can get the top score at the entrance exams.”

“We’ll see about that!” Anne retorted, also opening up her textbook. Even if they were friends now, and regardless of her complicated feelings towards him, she was still headset on beating him for the top score. 

“Alright then, all the correct answers can be found in your books, and as always, if you have anything you’re unsure about, I’m here to help,” Ms. Stacey explained, starting to move around the room as they all got to work correcting each other’s answers. A low, comforting mutter filled the room as they worked, Ms. Stacey occasionally swooping down to answer a question or help someone find a right section of the book. Anne got to work too, it seeming routine now after a few mock exams under her belt. The section of the exam they had practiced today was about history, one of her favourites, so she was feeling confident in her answers, and curious to hear how she’d done. As she flipped through the pages of the textbook to find the section on the Napoleonic Wars - the topic of the first question - she glanced over at Gilbert who had already found the right page, his eyes shifting between the tightly-printed text of the book and her test paper, the tip of his fountain-pen hovering just slightly above the page. As she watched him, her thoughts drifted back to a memory from months ago, the way he held onto his pen steadily but carefully reminding her of how he’d held onto her hand when they had danced in the classroom of the schoolhouse. It felt like it had been years ago, before she had realized her sudden feelings for him and had had them subsequently crushed. Now, more than a month after the fair, she had made her peace with it all. Gilbert and Winifred made for a handsome couple, just what a future doctor and his wife ought to look like. She seemed pleasant and well-educated, came from a respectable family in Charlottetown, she would be a good, proper wife for him, and that was that. But sometimes she did catch herself wondering…

“Trying to pry at your answers?” Gilbert interrupted Anne’s wandering thoughts, catching her looking over at him.

“I uhh,” she started, blinking awake and meeting his eye, seeing his warm brown eyes looking at her with amusement.

“Hardly. I just can’t find the right page is all,” she explained, gesturing at the book in her lap with a sigh of frustration.

“Oh, it’s umm,” Gilbert started, checking the page number before leaning over to her, looking down at the pages of her book. 

“It’s right over here,” he said, his voice calm and low not to make too much noise as to bother the others, shifting a bit closer to her as he reached out his hand to flip over a couple of pages. Anne held her breath as he did so, keenly aware of her knee lightly pressing against his leg as he leaned over, his face only a couple of inches from hers as he went through the pages, absentmindedly muttering the page numbers under his breath, her the only one to hear him. It all felt so profoundly intimate all of a sudden, and she was almost happy that he had feelings for another and they were only friends, because otherwise she wouldn’t know what to think. 

“Here, page 427. Napoleon’s troops invade Russia,” Gilbert said, his voice still low and hushed as he leaned away just a little to look at her face, lightly tapping on the page with his index finger. 

“Thank you,” Anne said, her voice coming out a little more breathless than she had anticipated as she met eyes with him, seeing him looking at her intently, his gaze straying from her green eyes for just a second. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he were gazing at her lips. But she did know, and they were just friends now, so she tried to ignore it. But she failed, instinctively biting down on her lip under his gaze. It seemed to snap him out of the reverie he was under as he blinked his eyes, looking back up at hers, a polite smile on his face.

“You’re welcome,” he said as he leaned away, going to concentrate back on his work again. 

Anne did the same, but the whole time she kept on going back to what if had felt like having his gaze fixed on her lips, the airy, thrilling feeling reminding her of that moonlit night on the porch of this same house, when after their heart-to-heart they’d shared that precious little moment, Gilbert looking at her just like the way the fortune teller at the fair had described, his eyes overflowing with something deep and scarce in the moonlight. Winifred was a lucky girl indeed, courting someone with eyes as captivating as his. Anne could only hope that one day when she found her true love, he would gaze at her the same way. Maybe one day she’d feel like this again, and that time for a person she knew loved only her, not anyone else. She could hardly wait.

On the bench next to Anne, Gilbert looked up from the page where he had been lost studying her graceful, loopy handwriting, and stole a glance at the girl sitting next to her. She was leaning over the textbook, reaching up to tuck a strand of fiery red hair behind her ear with her delicate fingers, her concentration never straying from her work. He wished he was as diligent as she was. Because right now - like every day as of late, it seemed - the sole thing his thoughts focused on was her. Only her.


End file.
